Whether Suggestions in cross examination have evidentiary value?
Let me at this stage take a note of one very important aspect. The plaintiffs could be said to have satisfactorily discharged the burden open it for proving the issue No. 2 in the affirmative. The plaintiff in her cross examination-in-chief has stated as to the rash and negligent manner in which the firing was opened by the Army and how the same led to death of her husband. She has made out a case of wrongful deprivation of the life of the deceased resulting into consequence of liability on the part of the State to pay the compensation. The point, I would like to take note of, is that except putting suggestions in the cross examination, the defendants have not been able to discern anything from the evidence of the plaintiff on the strength of which the issue No. 4 could have been in the affirmative. It is a settled position of law that mere suggestions are not sufficient to dislodge or disprove the case of the plaintiff. Suggestions in cross examination have no evidentiary value. In absence of any evidence, nor any material traced in the cross-examination in support thereof, the findings so far could not have been answered in the affirmative by the Trial Court as well as by this Court in the First Appeal.
IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
Letters Patent Appeal No. 473 of 1996 in First Appeal No. 5952 of 1995
Decided On: 04.08.2017
Umedmiya R. Rathod and Ors. Vs. State of Gujarat
